Co-Captain Colin Wackett (centre) with Dr. William Chu (left), Canadian lead for the SABR Prostate Trial and Dr. Andrew Loblaw (right), Chair of the Prostate Cure Foundation.

This last weekend (May 28) on the lakefront of Orillia, there were riders as far as the eye could see. Supporters from Orillia and surrounding communities came out in droves on a gorgeous Saturday morning for what may likely be the largest turnout in the Huronia Ride For Dad’s 12-year ride history.

The SABR Prostate Trial (internationally called PACE– Prostate Advances in Comparative Effectiveness) was the rally call to the crowd by Colin Wackett, long-time Co-Captain of the Huronia Telus Ride For Dad. SABR stands for Stereotactic ablative radiotherapy, a more precise external beam radiation technique that takes advantage of the “Achilles Heel” for prostate cancer. SABR is even more convenient and appears to be more effective than standard external beam radiation (Loblaw A et al, 2014). Patients only need five non-invasive treatments, compared to the usual 20-39 treatment course. SABR also appears to have better quality of life and is cheaper than other standard radiation treatments including low dose rate (LDR) brachytherapy and standard external beam radiation (Helou J et al, 2016).

The SABR Prostate Trial opened in February at the Odette Cancer Centre at Sunnybrook. Dr. William Chu is the Canadian Lead for the study. Patients will be randomly assigned to standard radiation (the choice of 20 or 39 treatments) or SABR (five treatments). Already 13 patients have been recruited to the study at Odette.Recently the trial management committee met to review the SABR prostate study accrual around the world. Sunnybrook, despite being the last centre to open the study, has accrued the most number of patients in the last three months.The SABR Trial will be taking place at 15 cancer centres across Canada. The Prostate Cure Foundation and Ride For Dad are co-sponsoring the trial in Canada, helped by generous donations from Astellas, Janssen and Astra Zeneca.Men with favourable-risk prostate cancer who are interested in participating in the SABR Prostate Trial should contact their oncologist to see if they might qualify. For further information, visit the SABR section of this website. ​